Holly Watt reports from the RFA Fort Victoria in the Indian Ocean as a raid by
the Royal Navy on a fishing boat leads to the arrest of 14 suspected pirates.

The men lounging on the rusty fishing boat had spent the morning making a great show of casually ignoring the menacing warships tailing them from less than a mile away.

Despite flares and warning machine-gun fire launched from a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter overhead, the men – all Somali, all suspected of being pirates – pottered about, hung out laundry or dozed on deck in the morning sun.

Watching them from the bridge of the RFA Fort Victoria, one of the international fleet of vessels patrolling for pirates off Africa's east coast, an officer muttered, "They aren't taking a bit of notice of us".

Soon after, however, the commanders of this British ship, and an allied US destroyer also tailing the fishing boat, decided to act.

A group of Royal Marines in full battle kit climbed down ladders and into high-powered speedboats, which peeled off and used the Fort Victoria's 31,500-tonne, 669ft bulk to provide cover as they sprinted through the waves towards the suspected pirates.

Above, the Lynx sent another barrage of warning shots into the water nearby.

Despite the clear danger bearing down on it, the little ship ploughed on, a small skiff roped to its stern bouncing erratically behind.

One speedboat pulled up to the Somali vessel. A Marine scrambled up and over the rails and into the boat, followed by another and then another.

Only then did the 14 men on board surrender. "They've got her," said one of the officers watching from the Fort Victoria. "She's secure."

The RFA Fort Victoria has been hunting pirates in the Indian Ocean since October.

Early that month, its forces helped free 23 hostages from the Montecristo, a 56,000-tonne Italian bulk carrier hijacked off Somalia.

During an earlier deployment in late 2010, it disrupted at least six separate pirate raids.

Since that mission, the pirates' tactics have changed, moving further into the Indian Ocean and reaching closer to India than Africa during some recent attacks.

They are increasingly using "mother ships", larger vessels like the fishing boat boarded by the Fort Victoria's Royal Marines on Friday, as floating forward bases from which they launch raids in smaller skiffs.

Successful pirate attacks close to Somalia dropped significantly during 2011, but the financial rewards for piracy remain overwhelming when an average Somali can expect to earn no more than £200 in a year.

In contrast, ransoms total an estimated £44 million a year, according to a report last week from Chatham House.

The largest paid, in November 2010, was £6 million for the Samho Dream, a South Korean supertanker carrying £100 million of crude oil.

These statistics help explain why so many poor Somali men chose to risk their lives by taking to the ocean in search of plunder.

However, conditions at sea can be squalid.

Fuel tanks crowded the deck of the 30-feet blue and white fishing vessel boarded on Friday, with cockroaches swarming all over the boat. The stench was overpowering. The crew were in a random selection of scruffy clothes. Most of them wore sarongs.

On board, the Royal Marines found rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles, improvised explosive devices and hand grenades, which were all bagged and removed pending future prosecution.

One of the main challenges in combating Somali piracy has been deciding what to do with pirates once they are caught.

The Navy has faced criticism for freeing pirates to return to Somalia. One alternative – to bring them to Britain to be tried and imprisoned – is unpopular because of fears they could claim asylum once released.

British aid is being spent to develop court systems for suspected pirates in Kenya, the Seychelles, northern Somalia and Oman, but these are still limited.

As the Fort Victoria's commanders discussed options for its latest haul of pirates, they were left on their captured ship overnight.

According to the Royal Marines who stayed to guard them, they appeared sanguine about their new captivity, spending the evening singing Phil Collins songs and demanding that the Marines sang them an Elton John song.

Eventually, more than 24 hours after their capture, the men were transferred to the Fort Victoria, taken to a large holding area with showers and lavatory facilities, and checked by a doctor.